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Friday, September 2, 2011

apple dumplings

Last week, Cookie Bandit and I celebrated our 4th anniversary.

We have always given each other gifts based on the traditional anniversary gifts...I love thinking of creative ways to interpret the traditions! For the paper anniversary, I recreated the night he proposed with gift certificates to the same restaurant and opera house. I even asked a friend to meet us at the spot he proposed to take photos. For the cotton and china anniversary, I gave him a whole new set of lounge wear and made him fortune cookies (China!) with things I loved about him written inside. Last year, we celebrated the leather anniversary by going to the county fair (cows have leather!), eating at Outback (again, cows!), and then having dessert at Leatherby's Ice Cream.

Yes, we stretch it a bit, but that's what makes it fun! This year, though, I was dismayed to find out that it was the fruit and flowers anniversary. What in the world do you get a man that relates to fruit and flowers???

I thought and thought, agonizing for days. Finally, I came up with a brilliant idea, if I do say so myself. I bought him an Apple iPod (hey, apple is a fruit!) and made him a dessert of homemade apple dumplings. I even cut flower shapes out of the pastry to decorate the dumplings! :)

This dumpling recipe is to die for! And...it's incredibly easy!

Start by combining flour, sugar, and salt. Then, using a pastry cutter or fork, cut in butter until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. You might consider softening the butter slightly beforehand (although that's not necessary).

In a separate dish, mix together water, vinegar, and an egg. Beat for a second to break up the yolk of the egg.

Pour the egg mixture into the crumbs and use the pastry cutter or fork to mix. Keep mixing until you've got a soft dough. Cover it and place it in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes...long enough to chill but not so long that it's rock hard.

While your dough is chilling, peel and core 6 apples. I placed these in a mixture of lemon water after peeling them to keep them from turning brown.

When your dough is through chilling, divide it into 7 equal balls. Six will be used to cover the apples...use the other to create cute decor for your finished dumplings.

Pat a ball of dough onto parchment paper until it's about 5-6 inches in diameter...it doesn't have to be a perfect circle, but it needs to be large enough to wrap around your apple. Sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar.

Wrap your sheet of dough around a cored apple, covering completely. Once again, it doesn't need to look beautiful and smooth. The more creases it has, the more character it has! Do this for all of the apples. If you want to decorate them, use the last ball of dough to cut out shapes or mold tiny stems.

At this point, you can chill your dumplings until you are ready to bake them. When you are ready to bake, create a simple syrup to pour over them. Mix together sugar, water, cinnamon, and butter in a saucepan and heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted. Pour over the apples and then bake them at 425 degrees for 40 minutes. If you have decorated them with extra pastry, you might want to cover with foil halfway through cooking since the decorations will brown faster (look at my finished product to see what I mean).

Combine flour, sugar, and salt together; cut in butter until coarse crumbs form. In a separate bowl, stir together water, egg, and vinegar until yolk breaks. Blend egg mixture and crumb mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until soft dough forms. Chill dough for 15 minutes and then divide into 7 portions. On a piece of parchment paper, pat 6 of the portions of dough into 5-6 inch circles large enough to wrap around an apple. Sprinkle each circle of dough with cinnamon and sugar, and then wrap around an apple, covering completely. Use final portion of dough to decorate dumplings. Place wrapped apples in a baking dish. To make syrup, combine sugar, water, cinnamon, and butter in a saucepan and heat until sugar has dissolved and butter has melted. Pour over dumplings; bake at 425 degrees for 40 minutes.

4 comments:

Love the idea you are doing to give a gift fitting the anniversary. I am doing something for Christmas this year that I started a few years ago. I buy a small gift for each year we have been married. This Christmas will be 32 small gifts. Just little things I know he can use. This was suggested in a forum a few years ago and I thought it would be fun. Was a surprise for sure last Christmas when he had 31 gifts under the tree. Only one coast me a lot. He had retired and could after all these years wear a wedding ring. Got caught in a machine years ago at work and had to have his cut off so I replaced it with a nice one as one of his gifts.